petrel
noun/ˈpɛt.ɹəl/
Etymology From earlier pitteral. Perhaps a diminutive of Peter, with reference to St. Peter's walking on the water (Matthew 14:29). A derivation from patter or pitter-patter has been suggested, for instance by ornithologist Elliott Ladd Coues.
1
Any of various species of black, grey, or white seabirds in the order Procellariiformes.
- The seventh of May following, we first saw many Birds in bignesse of Cliffe Pidgeons, and after divers other as Pettrels, Cootes, Hagbuts, Pengwins, Murres, Gannets, Cormorants, Guls, with many else in our English Tongue of no name.1625, Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes, The Relation of Captaine GOSNOLS Voyage to the North part of Virginia, begunne the sixe and twentieth of March, Anno 42. ELIZABETHAE Reginae 1602. and delivered by GABRIEL ARCHER, a Gentleman in the said Voyage:
- In a storm they will hover close under the ship's stern in the wake of the ship (as it is called) or the smoothness which the ship's passing has made on the sea; and there as they fly (gently then) they pat the water alternately with their feet as if they walked upon it; though still upon the wing. And from hence the seamen give them the name of petrels in allusion to St. Peter's walking upon the Lake of Gennesareth.1703, William Dampier, chapter III, in A Voyage to New Holland, etc. in the Year 1699:
- Derived terms
79 terms
Antarctic petrel, ashy storm petrel, Atlantic petrel, Barau's petrel, Bermuda petrel, black-bellied storm petrel, black-capped petrel, black storm petrel, black-winged petrel, blue petrel, Bonin petrel, Bulwer's petrel, cape petrel, Cape petrel, Chatham petrel, common diving petrel, Cook's petrel, dark-rumped petrel, diving petrel, European storm petrel, Fea's petrel, Fiji petrel, fork-tailed storm petrel, fulmarine petrel, fulmar-petrel, gadfly petrel, giant petrel, Gould's petrel, great-winged petrel, grey-backed storm petrel, Guadalupe storm petrel, Hawaiian petrel, herald petrel, Juan Fernandez petrel, Kaeding's petrel, Kerguelen petrel, Kermadec petrel, Leach's petrel, Leach's storm petrel, least storm petrel, Madeiran storm petrel, Madeira petrel, Magellan diving petrel, Magenta petrel, Markham's storm petrel, Mas a Tierra petrel, Mascarene petrel, Matsudaira's storm petrel, mottled petrel, Murphy's petrel, New Zealand storm petrel, northern giant petrel, Peruvian diving petrel, Phoenix petrel, Polynesian storm petrel, Providence petrel, Pycroft's petrel, ringed storm petrel, snow petrel, soft-plumaged petrel, southern giant petrel, South Georgia diving petrel, Stejneger's petrel, storm petrel, stormy petrel, Swinhoe's storm petrel, Tahiti petrel, Tristram's storm petrel, wedge-rumped storm petrel, white-bellied storm petrel, white-chinned petrel, white-faced storm petrel, white-headed petrel, white-necked petrel, white-vented storm petrel, Wilson's petrel, Wilson's storm Petrel, Wilson's storm petrel, Zino's petrel